Lots of offense as Teal edges White 5-4 on last-minute goal — and why I sent out all those Tweets

Personally, I’m of the less-is-more school of thought when it comes to covering events like the Teal-White scrimmage tonight at HP Pavilion.

I mean, each team was awarded a five-minute power play tonight when no penalty was committed — presumably so the coaching staff and fans could get a sampling of special teams play, which has merit as a concept. But, really, does the final score mean anything?

Of course not. But I know people are curious and since I’m in the information business, I’ll pass along the fact that Team Teal won 5-4 on a nifty goal by Michael Sgarbossa with 43.7 seconds left.

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And I’ll also mention that another prospect who has looked impressive in camp, Brodie Reid, scored twice for the losing side, that Patrick Marleau scored twice for that winning side, and that Michal Handzus, Joe Pavelski, Jamie McGinn and Joe Thornton also tallied.

For which team? Ah, too much information, right?

Scrimmages out of the way, bring on the preseason. Then let’s get through that injury-free (all teams) and get to the games that count.

*****If you’re among the 3,019 who have followed me into the Twitter universe at @PollakOnSharks, you know I was downright chatty during the scrimmage tonight.

Let’s just say it was part of my training camp, too. We’re going to try to do things a little differently this season when it comes to game-night coverage. We haven’t come up with the particulars just yet, but Twitter is one option so I thought I’d experiment tonight.

This was different, of course, because the game wasn’t available on radio or TV. Whatever I threw out there didn’t duplicate something most of you watching or listening already knew.

Which is the challenge once the regular season arrives.

David Pollak

David Pollak has been following the NHL forever and at the Mercury News as an editor or reporter since 1987. For almost a decade he wrote about the Sharks as the paper's Fan in the Stands before joining the sports department in 2001. He became the Sharks beat writer before the 2007-08 season and began this blog at that time. You can also follow him on Twitter at @PollakOnSharks.

Follow Andrew Baggerly’s example and tweet about what’s going on during the game. It doesn’t really matter if it duplicates what we already may know because some days we may not know what we knew yesterday as the game was going on.

Evilducks

I really liked the tweets! Not sure how that would pan out season wide. I’d like them on road games with early starts where I’m trapped at work.

Phill

the goal horn is stupid loud.

Go Patrick Marleau

Phill,

All goal horns are loud.

garbage_goal

Dave – just to chime in, I thought tonight’s tweets were fine given that pretty much nobody could see the game, but you’re spot on with your concerns about tweeting game action during the regular season. That kind of stuff tends to clutter my feed, especially when I follow more than one person who is trying to update his or her followers on game action. What then happens is that I have to scroll through multiple people telling me that so-and-so got a slashing call, and it’s a huge drag. It’s led to me unfollowing people whose tweets I otherwise really value, and it’s a shame when that happens.

(For what it’s worth, I am one of the 3,019, and so far so good!)

Things that are worth tweeting about are pieces of information you, as a beat writer, have access to and we fans generally do not. Details on player injuries, an observation about the atmosphere in the locker room, things like that. There are tons of other places to get straight-up game action information.

The tweets were great, especially w/out other info sources available. Even when they’re available I don’t mind duplicates. Any little insights are fun:)

…

Tweet like that for every game!

And if it bothers some people for “clogging their feed,” maybe you could make an “in-game” account where you only use it during games for updates.

wyldbull

@Phill: Yes it was crazy loud…and lets hope it blasts loud and proud all season long (seemed louder because of lack of people cheering and bodies absorbing the noise.)

@DP: Love getting the tweets.

NickG

@garbage_goal: It’s called lists. Create them and you’ll save yourself from having to deal with “clogged” feeds.

NickG

Oh and DP: Who cares about dupes? We follow you for a reason. Use it as often as you want.

Snow Shovel

Torrey Mitchel scored last night?!?!?!

I knew he would break out heading toward another award earning year!

Does Johnny know about this? He may want to buy a TM jersey!

FREE THE URBAN LEGEND!

just kidding, just kidding…

g-bum-man

Snow Shovel—yes, yes, the urban legend is alive and well–almost like he was reading the blog! Right on cue! Nothing would make all of us happier than having him go from being the “urban legend” to a REAL legend. I would say scoring 20 goals this year would be the basic “real legend” requirement. 20 goals gets you a chance to move from 3rd or 4th line up to 2nd line, IMO.

20 goals and 30 assists—that is “basic” legend material. 50 goals gets you “actual” legend status–e.g. Jonathon Cheechoo. He is still living off his Rocket Richard year. A “real legend” in the land of teal…..

heavymtl

Watching those 2 5-minute power plays lastnight got me thinking about something: if a team scores 2 (or more) goals during a 5-minute PP, are they credited as going 2 for 1 on the PP? 2 for 2? 2 for 3? How does that work?

Snow Shovel

g-bum-man – Lots of laughs! And LOL on the previous thread. Keep it up and we’ll have another fun year!

Snow Shovel

Our Legend

He came out of nowhere
In the Teal and White game,
And as Johnny surmised
He garnered more fame.

With Road Runner speed
And a shot like a rocket,
He fire one in
In the upper right pocket.

First, I always like your posts and think you do a great job. Just a thought about tweets though during the game. Many people can’t watch a game live and have to record it on their DVR and then watch it later. Tweets during the game would tell people what’s happening when they don’t want to know. Now I know, people can turn their twitter feed off during a game, and I never go to the Merc web site or your site until after I’ve watched the game, but you still might want to consider those who are recording the game when you send out tweets during the game. I like the idea of a separate twitter account for those who want in-game information.

gbs417

No mention of Doug Murray putting one in on his own goal?

Phil,
The goal horn was probably louder b/c there were fewer bodies in the arena to bounce the sound off of. But, when it sounded to mark the end of the autograph session, it definitely startled me.

moreSNOWshowers

Simply lovely there Snow Shovel…

Here is a question, NHL is discussing realignment now that Winnipeg is back in buisness, what are some scenarios you guys see playing out for the 2012-13 season.

Detroit and Columbus have both expressed their intrest to join the weaker Eastern conference.

David Pollak

gbs417,

From @PollakOnSharks’ myriad of Tweets last night:

My eyes may have deceived me, but it looked as if Douglas Murray’s attempt to clear ended up in his own net. Marleau gets goal for Teal.

David

sierranevcellie

looks like tonight’s pre-season tilt w/ A*alharm will be webcast

Snow Shovel

Got some things finished here at the office with a few minutes before the next task so I ‘m going to expand on the previous.

Our Legend

He came out of nowhere
In the Teal and White game,
And as Johnny surmised
He garnered more fame.

With Road Runner speed
And a shot like a rocket,
He fire one in
In the upper right pocket.

I watched as he moved
With such smooth flowing grace,
And, My God! with such speed
He would win every race.

He battled in corners
And fought at mid ice,
He would go to the net
And be there in a trice.

Yes, my hopes will ride high
On our legend this year,
And a twenty goal season
Could be so very near!

moreSNOWshowers – Thanks!

Sammy

I swear the goal horn was abnormally loud last night, but it had to have been because of less bodies in the arena.

Super fun to watch the scrimmage. I was surprised at how some of those rookies were getting smashed around!!

Long Time No Cup

Let’s take up a collection for Torrey Mitchell. Whatever money comes in we will take to the money changers and change into quarters. Then we will divide the quarters into two equal piles. We’ll put each pile into a zip-lock bag (snack-, sandwich-, quart-, or freezer- size depending on WTC largesse). Then Torrey will tape one bag of quarters to each thigh.

Then it might take more than a gentle breeze to knock him off the puck.

David– Careful with the twitters! 3,000+ followers? That must be close to the total BANG hard copy circulation. Someone may notice, if you get my meaning.

moreSNOWshowers

Mitchell wil never be able to stay on the puck down low, I think he started to find his game last season quick to it and quick off of it, get it to the goalie’s pads and create a scramble in the crease.
We saw it last year with Pav’s and Wellwood when he got the puck he knew where to move it to an open man, he has to play fast not strong that’s his game.
It would be nice if he figured out how to score a few.

hugoboss

Hey DP, you are a TWITTER MACHINE, good job! It was pretty funny because I was at the game reading your tweets as the game was going on. I let all my friends sitting around me check out your tweets on and they thought it was pretty cool…..next thing I noticed was YOU sitting 2 rows in front of me with Tweeting from your laptop. We all started laughing….

tyler

Tweet away! But I second the suggestion to look at Andrew Baggarly’s twitter account. Perhaps it violates certain time-honored rules of journalism, but I appreciate the flashes of personality that he injects into certain observations. And even when he is reporting game action, he often includes little statistics or trivia that the casual fan might not know.

@more SnowShowers on re-alignment: Dominoes fall like this IMO:
1-Detroit to east, Winnipeg to west.

New central team: Dallas, New Pacific team: Colorado, New Northwest team: Winnipeg. West is fixed. The east a bit trickier.

New SE team Philly, new Atlantic team: Boston, new Northeast team: Detroit. This approach means all 6 divisions have 1 new team adding an element of freshness equally across all divisions. The new central here features all teams in the central time zone. The new Pacific eases some shark travel a bit given Colorado an easy non-stop flight from SJC rather than the trip to the central time zone of Dallas. Jets a natural fit for new NW.

Detroit fits well into the geography for the NE and gives us the Tor-Det rivalry. Philly-Wash fits nice into the SE. Boston-NY area teams a decent fit for Atlantic. My $.02 I do like the current 6 division setup and top 3 seeding plan so hoping that stays in the plans.

Z.SharkRA

Finally! Hockey season’s almost here…at last. I wonder if all the injuries are really healed enough (ie Jumbo’s shoulder) to get to slammin’ already. Seems like we JUST, ever so recently saw a bunch of bruised, battered and concussed warriors dejectedly shaking hands with a less injured team and disappearing into oblivion (yet again). Hopefully this off-season’s oblivion included visits to magic healing waters!

Z.SharkRA

Maybe Urban Legend will blossom without Seto’s Ego’s Shadow to live under. (did I write that out loud?) whoops…

Z.SharkRA

Looking forward to having strong & fast & scoring ‘D’ corp to add to the already potent ‘O’…as the coach says: off to a fast start, no come-from-behind season. This IS an elite team already – Sharks should have 3 cups by now – BE elite and outwork everyone else…

Johnny San Jose

Hey Snow Shovel — Great to see you posting again. This one’s for you and g-bum-man.

He may be fast
He may be swift
He may be stuck in a snow drift

He may have hands
He may score a goal
He will get knocked over like a frozen pole

He may be small
From fights he’ll flee
The Legend will come… Urban, he’ll be

moreSNOWshowers

@cap-o-113

Wouldn’t it be easier to just take the closest team to the Southeast (Nashville) put them in the Southeast and put Winnipeg in the Central, heck Winnipeg is only IDK 20 miles from Detroit.

Here’s hoping (raising my pepsi to seal the pact) that the Legend proves all of us wrong this year.

Johnny San Jose

Tom — Snow Shovel is the worthy one. I just chip in here and there.

It’s pretty funny. I really don’t dislike The Urban Legend™. He can be fun to watch. It just sort of took off a couple of seasons ago with so much promise and nothing to show for it. Yes, injuries played a huge part.

I’m hoping he can put on a few pounds and help where he can. There may be an interesting 3rd line brewing with him and McGinn. Should be fun…

Ken G

DP, please remember that many of us TiVo the games and don’t want to see spoilers on Twitter… The Sharks main Twitter feed goes silent during the game and directs people to follow ‘sharks in game’ if they want those spoilers – that’s a great model, IMO.

I love having you tweet the game. Good point by Ken G. on spoilers, but if you could figure a way around that…we’d be set.

I mean, if you’re waiting to watch the game, you probably wouldn’t want to be on twitter anyways. Tweet away!

KJMarin

Dave, thanks for the excellent blog-work and for jumping on Twitter. I like Ray Ratto’s approach: running commentary about key points in the action from his perspective, not just reciting action. (Brodie Brazil has that covered). I’m more interested in your take on the effort, chemistry, changes in strategy, what’s working, etc. I appreciate that in your coverage and hope the Twit feed gives us real time access to that.
Keep up the good work!

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Fabiola Gerney

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